Fun with Language
Jan. 15th, 2018 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinThis visit to New Zealand was a focused research trip founded on specific existing knowledge; should I come again in a more touristy capacity, I'd want to learn a bit about Maori culture and language beforehand.
All the same, it's been fun piecing together bits you pick up from bilingual labels and explanatory signage. For instance, the plural of tui (a type of bird that sounds like R2D2) is nga tui, and waka is a general term for a vessel, which can be a canoe or the space shuttle, or a model thereof, or even a box.
So yesterday, when I took the boat from South to North Island, I observed that the Maori translation of 'New Zealand Ferries' is Nga Waka ...
... which literally means ...
... 'boats'?
All the same, it's been fun piecing together bits you pick up from bilingual labels and explanatory signage. For instance, the plural of tui (a type of bird that sounds like R2D2) is nga tui, and waka is a general term for a vessel, which can be a canoe or the space shuttle, or a model thereof, or even a box.
So yesterday, when I took the boat from South to North Island, I observed that the Maori translation of 'New Zealand Ferries' is Nga Waka ...
... which literally means ...
... 'boats'?
